Short Interest in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Increases By 20.1%

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 65,800,000 shares, a growth of 20.1% from the August 15th total of 54,790,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 19,700,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors raised its position in Microsoft by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after acquiring an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 25,505,600 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,591,126,000 after purchasing an additional 277,881 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $494.72.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.8 %

MSFT traded up $3.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $430.59. 15,860,047 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,595,854. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $309.45 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $423.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $423.47. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.28, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.